Current dental practices allows a dentist to create a partial or full denture to replace missing teeth in a patient's mouth. These created dentures need to accurately replicate the teeth which they replace both for appearance and securement purposes.
To create dentures, a pliable moldable impression material is utilized to form a three-dimensional negative likeness (reverse copy) of the surface of the imprint of a patient's teeth and adjacent jaw and mouth structure. A dental technician uses this likeness as a mold form to create the denture. In the process to create the likeness, the pliable, moldable impression material (while soft) is placed in a dental impression tray. The tray with the material is inserted into a patient's mouth and pressed against a jaw and adjacent teeth (if any) of the patient wherein the impression material is displaced around the jaw to create the three dimensional negative reproduction of the patient's jaw area. The tray acts to confine the pliable material to insure that an accurate three-dimensional mold of the patient's mouth is obtained. The pliable impression material begins to set and when stiff enough, the impression tray with its stiffened impression material is withdrawn from the patient's jaw. The stiffened material thus provides an accurate three dimensional reproduction of a patient's mouth, which (after complete stiffening) can be used as a mold by a dental technician for creating crowns, implants or replacement partial or full dentures for a patient. Of necessity, accuracy in recreating the details of a patient's mouth is most important both for appearance, fit and securement. An inaccurate reproduction can look bad, can apply pressure unequally on a patient's jaw which can cause soreness and wobble affecting the fit and usability of a denture crowns or implants. Thus, the impression material must provide an accurate three-dimensional negative likeness of the patient's jaw area by clearly indicating the spatial relationships of the alvelor ridge and adjacent dentition of a patient's jaw.
When long span dental bridges are constructed, metal structure of the bridge may not provide an accurate fit, even with accurate impressions. This can cause rocking of the bridge. Often the bridge is sectioned (separated into parts) to permit a more accurate fit to alleviate magnified cantilever movements of portions of the bridge due to the metal structure. Once sectioned a new impression of the sectioned bridge is obtained and used to create a correctly fitting single piece denture bridge. An accurate pickup of section pieces is required to adequately solder the parts to obtain an accurate fit.
Denture plates are brittle and can be broken when a person with false teeth bites against something hard such as candy. To avoid recreation of a broken plate, by the normal taking of jaw impressions with the subsequent creation of a new plate, dentists can utilize the broken plate itself for the creation of the impression. Utilization of the dental plate for impressions, is a more patient friendly procedure. Some patients have little patience for the taking of impressions and actually gag when the dental impression tray with impression material is inserted into their mouths.
Utilizing of patient's broken dental plate for the taking of the impression saves patients time (they need only drop off their broken denture at the dentist) as well as impression procedures discomfort. Additionally, the dentist can better schedule his time, since he can utilize spare or fill-in time during the day to create the replacement dental plate. The pieces of the broken dental plate or bridge are placed into patient's mouth and then a tray containing the impression material is placed over them to create an accurate three-dimensional likeness similarly as done with a patient's mouth. A positional problem occurs when utilizing broken plate pieces to recreate the necessary unitary structure in the dental impression tray. The broken pieces have to be positioned and aligned exactly to recreate the unbroken original. Setting broken pieces onto the impression tray and retaining them in contact and proper alignment is difficult. This procedure is very technique sensitive and unforgiving to any movement of the pieces, since the pliable impression material when forced around the pieces can cause the pieces to move.
The instant invention provides for the secure attachment of positional aids onto the broken dental plate pieces prior to insertion of the dental plate pieces into the impression tray filled with the pliable impression material. The positional aids stick outwardly from the dental plate pieces and act as levers or paddles whereby the dentist by pressing on the positional aid or on the impressional material can move the dental plate pieces into proper alignment. The positional aids help to hold the dental plate pieces while the impression material hardens to form a proper mold for recreating a new dental plate. Thus, the aids act to provide a tool for obtaining the desired complete and accurate three-dimensional creation of the patient's denture.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.